This Day in History

 In 1905, the Alaska Road Commission was created by an act of Congress.

 In 1959, Ernest Gruening and E. L. (Bob) Bartlett were sworn in as U.S. senators and Ralph Rivers sworn in to the U.S. House of Representatives. Ninety mph winds froze two Antarctic penguins in Anchorage's Arctic Health Research Center. Earlier plans to mate these penguins were abandoned, as it was discovered both were females.

 In 1976, the new Alaska Court and Office Building was dedicated in Juneau.

 In 1979, a Lockheed airliner crashed and burned on landing at a remote North Slope airstrip. All 15 passengers survived with no serious injuries.

In the nation

 In 1789, the first U.S. presidential election was held. Americans voted for electors who, a month later, chose George Washington to be the nation's first president.

 In 1800, the 13th president of the United States, Millard Fillmore, was born in Summerhill, N.Y.

 In 1953, President Truman announced in his State of the Union address that the United States had developed a hydrogen bomb.

 In 1955, singer Marian Anderson made her debut with the Metropolitan Opera in New York, in Verdi's "Un Ballo in Maschera."